Carol Fenlon

Skelmersdale Writers

About Skelmersdale Writers’ Group

Skelmersdale Writers’ Group meets on the  4th Monday of the month at the Trinity Methodist Church Hall, High St, Skelmersdale, WN8 8AT at 7.30 pm.  We also hold a daytime meeting in Skelmersdale Library on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 2 pm. We are a friendly mixed group of writers whose ages range from 16 to 60 plus. Our members range from novice writers to experienced and published authors whose interests include, poetry, short stories, novels and non fiction writing. Our aim is to cater for all types of writing and writer and to provide events of interest to the wider local community. Visitors are always welcome and may attend three meetings before being asked to subscribe to the group.

Activities

Our meetings are informal with plenty of opportunity for members to read their own work and receive constructive feedback, if they wish to do so. We carry information on current writing competitions and possible openings for submission of work to agents and publishers. Workshops led by members are included in the programme and we also aim to host regular speakers from the North West writing community. For enquiries about either of our meeting venues please use the contact form here to contact or check out our Facebook page where you can message us and find out what we are doing.

Programme

We are due for our AGM in July and will publish a new programme for the next six months after that.

Latest News

 June 2022

1. Thankfully we have been able to return to actual meetings and it is good to be home in our old venue and meeting face to face. This month we welcomed speaker Sarah Schofield who came to talk to us about writing short stories for magazines and getting them published. Sarah gave us such good information and stimulated our ideas so we are having a follow up evening where we write a story for this market and hopefully send it off to a suitable magazine.
2. A new innovation is the afternoon meeting in the library. This has been quite successful, especially for members who are free in the day but don’t want to attend an evening meet up. It is more informal than the evening meetings with no set programme, just the opportunity to meet up, chat about writing concerns and read work if we want to for constructive feedback.

3 We are pleased to report that our latest publication Then and Now: Images of Lathom House is virtually sold out with just two or three copies remaining. Thanks to the Co-op bank grant we were able to have a fantastic book launch at Chapel Arts Centre in Ormskirk.

A new anthology is currently being planned for a collection of Skelmersdale poems. This will include poems written in the past from before the new town and through the early days of the new town up to more recent times. A call for submissions will go out shortly in the local press and on this site for contemporary contributions based on life in Skelmersdale. Please use the contact form on this site for further details.

2020

We kicked off this month with a few fireworks and some thought provoking readings at our Celebration of Authors evening in Skem Library on the 4th. The theme for the night was bonfires and stress, to commemorate both Bonfire Night and Stress Awareness week. Special thanks to the authors who opened their hearts with their own experiences of stress.

11th November we enjoyed a welcome visit from well known and highly regarded horror writer Ramsey Campbell.

Photo by Tony Knox

It was a perfect night for the subject with rain lashing the windows and a full moon riding rhe massed storm clouds. The church hall setting added a frisson of fear, especially with the occasional creaks from the doors and shadowy figures flitting past the entrance and the windows. Ramsey regaled us with fascinating insights into his writing and his life and we got a discount price on his books.

Our last meeting of the month will be a discussion led by our own Heather Cowley on the question of whether stereotyped characterisation can be a useful writing device.

October 2019

Autumn setting in means time to plan our winter writing for those indoor evenings and Christmas holidays. A visit from Dot  Broady Hawkes from Lathom Park Trust got our creative juices going with tales of the research the Trust is doing into the lives of the servants at Lathom House in the 19th century. We’re planning to do some writing around this theme in the early part of next year so keep watching for news.

September 2019

This month we are getting back into gear after the summer holidays. We’ve had a couple of nuts and bolts workshops on getting published and preparing work for submission and we’re looking forward to an exciting new collaborative project which could result in a new anthology of work so watch this space.

June 2019

This month we’ve had our AGM which is perhaps more solemn than some of our other meetings – but we have lots of good stuff coming up, (see above). As well as our inhouse workshops and feedback meetings we look forward to meeting with members of Lathom Park Trust to discuss a possible writing project around the history of the house. This follows on from a field trip we had a few months ago to learn more about this historic site so there may be some exciting possibilities in store.

Another event to look forward to is an open evening in October at Skelmersdale Library  

which we will be hosting as part of National Library week. We will be inviting other local authors besides ourselves to take part and further details will be advertised in the autumn

April 2019

29th  Next meeting will be led by Elizabeth Brown and is a workshop using the senses. Hmm – I wonder what we will be doing? Usual tea/coffee/ biscuits and lively chat.

25th Carol Fenlon will be interviewed on Maghull Radio’s poetry and story hour at 7pm. Listen in online if you can at maghullradio.co.uk

20th Elizabeth Brown put in an Easter appearance at W.H.Smith in Ormskirk, signing copies of her books and talking to the public. Hope you had a great day Elizabeth, good publicity for the group as well as the books!

6th Carol Fenlon spent Grand National Day signing copies of Mere and Consider the Lilies at W.H. Smith in Ormskirk. The manager and staff are great and very supportive and it was a fantastic day. Returning for a repeat visit to showcase Skelmersdale – A New Town in the Making later in the year.

2nd Some of us went for a guided tour round the grounds of Lathom Park, formerly Lathom House. We were led by Lathom Park Trust secretary Dot Broady-Hawkes who is an absolute fount of knowledge about the different historical periods of Lathom House. Although it was a freezing cold day we were all fascinated and very grateful to Dot for giving up her time, especially as she was preparing to jet off to America the next day! We were glad to repair to the nearby Plough inn to thaw out with hot drinks and then a lovely lunch. We discussed what we had learned and felt it should go further to produce some joint writing.  Could this be the start of a new anthology for the group? Or maybe we could help Lathom Park Trust with one of their writing projects? We agreed to ask the group to consider this at our AGM and possibly to invite someone from the Trust to talk to us as part of our programme for the second half of the year.

1st. Carol Fenlon longlisted for the prestigious New Welsh Writing Award’s Rheidol Prize for a short story with a Welsh theme. Carol’s story is one of seven longlisted for the prize. It’s titled ‘Letters from Dr Fowler and is a fiction based on the famous Victorian Welsh Fasting Girl of Carmarthen, Sarah Jacob. The shortlist is to be announced on 1st May. Fingers crossed but just thrilled to be on the longlist. More details on the  Bookseller website and on the NWWA website

March

30th Carol Fenlon and Cath Cole were at What’s Your Story Chorley literary festival Carol  presented ‘Writing West Lancashire’ a talk about local influences on her books and reading extracts from Mere and Consider the Lilies. Cath was there all day, stewarding and I am grateful to her for her assistance in getting there and getting me sorted out!

20th Carol was guest speaker at Lytham poetry group on 20th March, talking about how snapshot poetry can set the scene for longer fiction pieces and using extracts from her novels to illustrate. After the teabreak it was good to listen to the group’s poetry which had quite a springlike theme. It’s a lovely group and many thanks to Elle-Marie who was an excellent hostess as well as being a great wordsmith.

Next meeting on March 11th will be a workshop on dialogue and its uses. All welcome as usual,

Joe Welsh and Chris Carr have presented two short plays, recently at the Engine Rooms. I went along and ended up crying with laughter, funniest thing I’ve seen in year. More venues are planned so keep an eye out for them, they’re definitley not to be missed.

Carol Fenlon will be giving an illustrated talk, ‘Writing West Lancashire’

to Skelmersdale U3A’s local history group at  the Ecumenical Centre on Thursday 21st February at 2pm. Carol will show how the local landscape and history have influenced her writing and trace the journey from a single image to a whole novel. Visitors are welcome to attend at a small charge to cover refreshments.

Archive

2018

Carol Fenlon’s new novel, Mere, a dark and ghostly tale set in and around Burscough was published on 21st June by Thunderpoint Publishing and has been appearing at local fairs and events. A reading took place at Skem Library on July 9th and an official launch was held at Chapel Gallery on 26th July. More events are forthcoming, see the events page of this website.

Monday 26th March we welcomed author Rhona Whiteford to our group. Rhona is an accomplished children’s author and she fascinated us with her account of how she came to write so many books for children and to create her own small publishing company to  market them. Rhona brought with her lots of her own artwork which she uses to illustrate her books and design the covers. In the second part of the meeting she gave us some exercises to use imagination to create characters that children will love and also to create effective settings. It was a fantastic night that we all enjoyed so many thanks to Rhona for sharing her experience and skills. Read more about Rhona and her books on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhona-Whiteford/e/B00NJJFIL0

January 8th                                 Read your own work

22nd                                Night out to Miners’ Peg

February 12th                             Read your own work

26th                            Collaborative writing, session 2 led by Cath Cole

March     12th                            Read your own work

26th                            Guest speaker Rhona Whiteford, children’s and adult
fiction writer and publisher

April         9th                           Read your  own work

23rd                           Write on the night. Bring a food bank item and write about it
Led by Heather Cowley

May       14th                           Read your own work

21st                           Who is your favourite character and why?
Led by Joe Welsh

June      11th                            Read your own work

25th                            AGM followed by  recommend a book led by David Jenkins

Happy New Year to writers everywhere. Skem Writers have already started off the 2018 with our first meeting for constructive comments on our work. We have a new programme for the next six months which you can see below. Wishing all our members lots of  writing success and another good year for our group.

Our fourth anthology Endings will be launched at Skelmersdale Library on Monday 7th August at 5.00 pm. All welcome to come along have a glass of wine or cup of tea and hear us read from our latest collection. This one is themed on ‘endings’ which of course also imply new beginnings. 25p from each copy sold goes to the No Whitemoss Landfill campaign. Copies are also available on Amazon.

Next meeting is Monday 21st August, note this is a change from our usual routine to avoid the Bank Holiday Monday. This meeting will be a workshop on serendipity in your writing and will include Oulipo fun and games. Come prepared to play. Bring with you a short piece of writing, your own or something from a book, it can be prose or fiction and a dictionary if you have one. I will have some spares and you can also use your mobile phone instead. Visitors welcome as usual.

Programme July to December 2017

July        10th  Read Your Own Work

24th  Write in advance, them Seasons

August  14th  Read Your Own Work

21st Serendipitous writing with Carol Fenlon.

September
11th  Read Your Own Work

25th Writing for Children with Guest Kevin McCann

October    9th Read Your Own Work

23rd  Guest speaker, horror author A.S.Chambers

November
13th Read Your Own Work

27th Write on the night: School reunion, led by Cath Cole.

December
11th Read Your Own Work with Christmas nibbles.

Endings Anthology book launch, 7th August 2017

Hooray, publication of our new anthology Endings is now under way. The manuscript has come back from editing/proofreading, happily with not too many corrections so it looks like we’re on track for a May publication date.

Next meeting is on Monday 24th April when Elizabeth Brown will be taking us through the self- publishing process with FeedaRead. Promises to be an interesting night.

We’ve been very busy the last couple of months putting together a new anthology. Our first two anthologies are sold out and in fact we have now published ‘Tales of a New Town’ in a kindle edition so you can still get to read our fantastic work. We still have a few copies of ‘Fruits of Life’ but even these are down to single figures.
The new anthology is titled and themed ‘Endings’ which has given us quite a wide writing remit. It promises to be a varied collection of poetry and fiction and should be available in May of this year. At our first April meeting we’ll be finalising the exciting job of choosing the cover from a number of possibilities submitted by members of the group. Not only talented writers but talented graphic artists too!
Our next meeting is on the 27th March when we welcome guest speaker Dennis Conlon who will be telling us about his exciting life both as a writer and television actor. Visitors are always welcome. See our full programme below for more details.

Happy New Year to writers everywhere. Skem writers kicked off the year with an informal read your own work night then followed up with our annual night out to our local Wetherspoons where we were able to catch up with socialising which we often do not have time for at meetings. Trevor stole the show coming along dressed as Breaking Bad’s Heisenberg but we let him off with this as it was his birthday.
We’ve an exciting new programme (see below) and we are busy putting together our new anthology titled Endings. This will be our fourth anthology. The first two are completely sold out, although Tales of a New Townis now available on Amazon kindle. We have a few copies left of Fruits of Life but this too will soon be a collector’s item. We expect to publish Endingsaround Easter so watch out for this new collection from the strange and wonderful minds and pens of Skelmersdale Writers.

Programme January to June 2017

January 9th            Read your own work.
23th          Night out- Ormskirk Wetherspoons.

February 13th          Read your own work.
27th          Write on the night- Reconciliations                  led by Val Hearn.

March 13th          Read your own work.
27th          My writing journey with Dennis Conlon

April 10th          Read your own work.
24th           How to use FeedaRead- demonstration by Elizabeth Brown.

May 8th    Read your own work.
22nd         Write in advance- Lol (laugh out loud).

June  12th         Read your own work.
26th         AGM followed by recommend a book led by Cath Cole.

Well we at Skem Writers have had our usual Christmas meeting and Christmas house party with plenty of  good cheer, fun and games. All that’s left is to wish writers and readers everywhere a very merry Christmas and to hope everyone gets the books they really want to read in their Christmas stockings.
So here’s to all of you from all of us.

Skelmersdale Writers group is celebrating publication of two new books by members Joe Welsh and Carol Fenlon.

Who Cares is the story of a disaffected care worker in a children’s home (by Joe Welsh).
Plotlands is a collection of linked short stories by Carol Fenlon featuring the residents of a seaside shantytown in North Wales.

Both writers will be at Skelmersdale Library on Monday 21st Novemer from 5.00- 6.45 pm to read from their books and answer questions about their writing. Admission is free and refreshments will be available.

Skelmersdale Writers’ 2nd writing retreat got off to a cracking start when we all met up at Welshpool on the way for lunch and a bit of retail therapy.
Of course we were there to work and having arrived at our lovely venue Boatside holiday accommodation at Builth Wells, we primed ourselves for an evening’s planning with  a few glasses of wine.
I spent most of the week doing final revisions on a novel I hope to publish next year. Five of us were staying in two beautiful pine lodges right on the river Wye, with spectacular views front and rear and absolute peace at this timeof year.
We all had a room each so were able to work in solitude, meeting up for meals and having feedback sessions each evening before relaxing with a film  or TV. It was a wonderful opportunity to focus exclusively on a piece of writing and it worked out at just £100 each for a full week in the off season. We still managed a couple of afternoons out exploring nearby towns, Builth Wells,  Llandrindod Wells and venturing as far as Llanidloes.
I came home very happy and feeling very organised. I think we all had a productive and enjoyable week and we will certainly be going again.

We were out and about at the Celebrating Skelmersdale event at the E-Rooms on 5th August. Lots of people showed interest in the group, we were canvassing for new members and also showcasing our books. Our next public event will be at Skem library, news of this to follow soon..

PROGRAMME  June- December 2016

July 11th          Erotic writing workshop with Carol Fenlon and Heather Cowley.

25th          Read your own work.

August 8th      Read your own work.

22nd         Themed writing (prepare before meeting) – ‘Endings’ led by Cath Cole.

September 12th     Read your own work.

26th          Micro fiction workshop with Carol Fenlon.

October 10th             Read your own work.

24th             Guest Speaker Kim Wiltshire (scriptwriting).

November 14th            Read your own work.

28th           Debate- do writers have responsibility? Led by David Jenkins.

December  12th        Read your own work with a mince pie or two.

ARCHIVE NEWS

The Christmas party at Carol’s was our last meet of the year and went off with the usual high jinks.

For November our own member Ruth Slater who has recently completed a publishing MA gave us an excellent workshop on the merits of getting traditionally published and self-publishing. Ruth intends to set up her own publishing company in the New Year which is great news for Northern writers.

October meeting We welcomed Alison Chisholm who led a great workshop on writing mini memoirs and also gave us some super tips on how to perform and read our work in public.

November meeting will be hosted by Ruth Slater who will be talking to  us about publishing both self-publishing and the traditional publishing route.

We had a really enjoyable open evening at Skelmersdale Library on 17th August. Three new visitors came along and it was quite an eye-opener as we all discussed what benefits we gain from coming to the group. Definitely something we would do again. Thankfully we are lucky to have such good support from our local library so many thanks to Noreen and the staff for organising everything and providing the refreshments.Don’t miss Elizabeth Brown’s book launch at Skem Library next Monday 16th February, 5 – 6.30 pm. She’s prolific our Elizabeth, not one book but two published simultaneously. She’ll be reading extracts from both. ‘Run Amy Run’ is a gripping tale of a young girl who runs away to live on the streets of London. ‘An Ocean Divide’ is a story inspired by the sinking of the Titanic and follows the fortunes of two lovers separated by the Atlantic.

And that’s not all. You’ll also get a preview of Cath Cole’s forthcoming book ‘Home from Home’ which is a great novel about a group of young girls training to be nurses in the 1960s. ‘Home from Home’ is due to be published by Corazon books this summer and Cath will be reading an extract at Monday’s event. And last but not least, the rest of us will be strutting our stuff with some of our favourite pieces of poetry and prose so please do join us, attendance is free.

Happy New Year everyone. We had a New Year party instead of a Christmas one this time and it was a right good do. Anyway to get down to business,
NEW YEAR – NEW PROGRAMME
lots of good stuff check it out below.

Last month we were visited by Liverpool comedy actor Gary Skyner. Gary gave us a very thought  provoking presentation on how he has overcome the problems of living with with being the second UK child to be born with disabilities due to the thalidomide drug prescribed to pregnant women in the 1960s. He showed us the fight thalidomide victims have had to and still have to put up to get just compensation and he also showed us his great humour and strength  of spirit which have enabled him to become a well respected actor and comedian. Gary has worked with many national celebrities including Ricky Tomlinson and has appeared many times on national TV. It was a smile a  minute evening with lots of laughs and seeing all the different jobs and skills that Gary has mastered certainly inspired me to get on with my writing.

26th August

Whoop whoop, another Skem Writers’ group member secures a publishing deal. Our Chair, Cath Cole’s debut novel ‘Home From Home’ will be published by indie press publisher Ian Skillicorn under the Corazon Books imprint, early in 2015. The book clearly showed promise when a chapter won a heat of Liverpool’s Writing on the Wall festival fiction competition Pulp Idol. Well deserved congratulations to Cath, our members know how hard she has worked on her manuscript and we can’t wait to see the cover and the whole book.

June 30th

Skelmersdale Writers’ Group launched their latest anthology Fruits of Life at Skelmersdale Library. This venture was funded by West Lancashire CVS, Mobilising Health Around Communities and we worked to a theme on health. Fruits of Life is a collection of poetry and prose dealing with a wide range of health issues. It’s priced at £4.50 and is  available to order on Amazon
Fruits of Lifewww.amazon.co.ukFruits of Life

You can also find it on eBay or order direct by emailing me. Free delivery on direct orders to Skelmersdale and district.

ARCHIVE NEWS

A wonderful evening with Carys Bray last Monday (28th October). Carys kicked off with a reading from her short story collection ‘Sweet Home’ and told us something of her writing process and how she develops her ideas. We were also privileged to hear an excerpt from her forthcoming novel ‘A Song For Issy Bradley’ which is due out next June. After tea and cake Carys led a workshop themed around the concept of ‘home’ which we all enjoyed and I at least came away with inspiration for a character I’m currently writing.

Check out our new programme for next six months below.

PROGRAMME July to December 2013

July              8th         Read your own work
22nd        Favourite book or author review

August      12th         Read your own work
19th         Guest speaker (self-publishing).

September 9th          Read your own work
23rd        Read your own work

October   14th         Read your own work
28th        Short story workshop with guest facilitator, Carys Bray

November 11th          A Bucket of Words, poetry workshop with Carol Fenlon and Trevor Jenks.
25th         Debate night (compered by Joe)

December    9th        Read your own work
20th        Christmas party (venue to be arranged)

Archive news
An Evening with Carys Bray.  Monday 28th October. Full details of this great opportunity to hear Carys talk about her work and participate in a workshop. Carys is a rising star in the fiction world so don’t miss this chance to see her. Full details on myhome page

‘A Celebration of Skelmersdale Writers’.We are pleased to be hosting another of our open mic evenings at Skelmersdale Library next Monday 19th August from 5.30-7pm. We will be strutting our stuff and invite other writers from the district to contribute. If you’d  just like to come along and listen that’s great too. We will have books by local authors for sale and a guest appearance by Alison Butler, whose first novel, ‘The Hanging of Margaret Dickson’ has recently been published. Entry is free and refreshments will be available.

Well, we are well into the New Year and settled back into our old home at the Methodist Church Hall. We had to postpone our Christmas party due to people being on holiday or ill so we had a party in January instead. Unfortunately we picked a night when it decided to snow heavily and had a hard time getting home but it was good fun anyway. As well as our usual nights reading our own work and getting feedback we’ve had a poetry workshop and a discussion on what makes a writers’ group, both lively evenings. Our next meeting on March 25th is a literary debate night, suggestions for topics so far are: should writing be political? and Why do rubbish books get published? Our first guest speaker of the year will be Cy Ferguson who is coming to talk about self-publishing in May.

December

We’re on the move again. After a trial period at ASDA we decided to return to Trinity Methodist Church Hall which is more suitable for our activities. Many thanks to ASDA for hosting us and providing us with free tea and coffee.

Last meeting of this year will be on Monday December 10th for Christmas hilarity and Readings from our own work. We’re postponing the Christmas party till our Chair returns from (yet another) gallivanting trip in the New Year but some of us will be attending a local panto. If you’d  like to join us please email me for more details.

November – We sent the month out  with a bang with a super workshop from guest writer and tutor Jenny Newman. We submitted pieces in advance to Jenny and on the night the whole group was involved in discussing the pieces and giving feedback. It was not only a great opportunity to have your work evaluated by a professional writer and tutor but a great exercise for us all in how to give constructive feedback. We were also delighted to welcome David Evans, Jenny’s partner who has also been a guest speaker for our group in the past, when he came to talk about his writing, particularly with respect to his fiction about South Africa and also about his work with Scotland Road writers.

July – Writers on the move.This month sees our group move to a new home. Asda has kindly offered us a meeting place at the Asda store on Ingram Way, Skelmersdale. Times of meeting remain the same, as above, 2nd and 4th Mondays at 7.45pm. Many thanks to Asda for their generosity and hospitality and also tremendous thanks to all at the Trinity Methodist Church on the High Street who have played host to us for the past year or so.

New programme– our new programme runs from July to December and it’s a cracker. Lots of manuscript evenings as usual plus speakers, workshops and our super Christmas party. Details below.

Open mic night at Skelmersdale Library
Monday July 16th July we hosted this super event at Skelmersdale Library, with our group reading from our anthology ‘Tales of A New Town’ and also other work. We were joined by some fantastic readers and performance poets from Upholland Library and local townspeople. It was a great evening, much enjoyed by all. Many thanks to Yvonne and the library staff for making it happen.

Our May meeting saw us being entertained by romantic novelist June Francis as part of Merseyside’s Writing on the Wall festival. June is the author of thirty books and came to share her expertise with us. We particularly enjoyed hearing about her life as a writer and her early struggles to get published – something many of us could identify with. We had an excellent night, the evening went by so quickly – and what a lovely lady. Thank you so much June, you inspired us all.

March 27th Three of Skelmersdale Writers who joined the North End Writers Titanic letter writing workshops had their letters selected to be used in the Sea Odyssey Giant Child Spectacular event to take place in Liverpool 20-22nd April. The photo shows them writing out their letters on special White Star Line headed notepaper at St George’s Hall.

February 29th. We had a stall at the Concourse as part of a one day event to promote local community groups. We made lots of contacts with other groups and also with local people. All the programmes we had on the stall disappeared so we’re hoping for a clutch of new members. Our first anthology After Noughtsold out and we also sold some copies of our second anthology Tales of a New Town, which is still available, to order see details below.

February 27th, the group had a great evening with poet Will Daunt who took us through his written texts along with visual images to enhance the poems. Will gave us a short workshop on writing about  place and we also had a lively discussion on the nature of poetry as Will showed how arrangement and form can change not only the appearance of the work but also the meaning and effects. A thought-provoking session that gave us lots of ideas for future writing.

Skem’s long poem and also the winning poems and stories from the 50th anniversary competition are now on display in Skelmersdale Library.

Skelmersdale New Town’s 50th birthday celebrations

Skelmersdale Writers’ group attended the celebrations held at Skem library for the 50th anniversary of Skelmersdale’s designation as a new town. We invited people who attended to help  us write the longest poem ever produced (at least in Skem!)

Lots of people participated and we hope to have the whole poem on display in the library once we have tidied it up a bit! Copies of our anthology, ‘Tales From A New Town’ were also available and we still have a few for sale. See below for details or contact us on writeme@carolfenlon.com

Here are some more photos from the day

Local historian George Orr chats about his Skem postcard collection

The kids get stuck in to building their own new town out of clay, some of the grown ups joined in the fun too.

and all the time the band played on. Skem Prize Band that is.

The chess club stand seemed to be really popular. Our Heather disappeared there for the whole afternoon!

Another contributor to our giant poem

Cath gets the ball rolling after a well-deserved cuppa.

and it just keeps on growing under the watchful eyes of Trev and Rita

and if it all goes up in flames, the Fire Service are here to rescue us.

and you can make your escape in a vintage Morris Minor, or even in a VW camper van – definitely so 1960s

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING IT SUCH A BRILLIANT DAY. DO WE HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER FIFTY YEARS TO DO IT AGAIN?

Carole Baldock visits the group 22nd August 2011

Skem writers at Glenburn school’s 40th anniversary celebrations

The group were honoured to be invited to judge an interschools’ writing competition on the theme of Forty Years On. Prizes were awarded in seventeen categories, based on age and genre. The Skelmersdale Writer’s special prize was awarded to Olivia Bott.

The group also manned a stall on the day, featuring memorabilia relating to the history of education in Skelmersdale and included a short written history by Carol Fenlon which was given away free on the day. The group is indebted to local historians George Orr and Harold Swift as well as to Marianne Howell at Skelmersdale Library, all of whom lent archive material for display.

It was a great opportunity to let the local community know about Skem Writers and what we do, also to sell our books but most of all it was good to be included in Glenburn’s celebrations and to reflect on how the school has developed and touched the lives of most people in the town either as pupils or parents of pupils, or as adult education students. Here’s to another great forty years.

Wildlife poetry workshop and reading with guest poet CAROL THISTLETHWAITE

Monday 23rd May. The group welcomed Carol who engaged us with a series of exercises which stimulated us to write on the subject of wildlife in all its variety and guises. After a well earned coffee break we were treated (and I mean treated) to a reading from Carol’s collection about birds, From The f Field Book published by Bewrite Books. Magical imagery and language held us enthralled together with computer illustrations of the birds. A fantastic evening enjoyed by all.

PULP IDOL (May) 2011

Six hopeful novelists entered the Skelmersdale heat of Pulp Idol, organised by Liverpoll’s Writing on the Wall Festival and hosted by Skelmersdale Writers’ Group.  Each writer had three minutes to read from their work and impress judges Sarah Mclennan and Toby Forward. Winners Cath Cole and Seb Koehorst are pictured here with the judges. Cath and Seb will go forward to take part in the final, competing against other writers from across Merseyside on May 28th at the Leaf Cafe on Bold Street. All the finalists will have the first chapter of their novel included in a book to be published by Writing on the Wall and the winner will enjoy an introduction to an established publisher.

Tales From A New Town, our latest anthology is selling fast. Get your copy now before they’re all gone. Order details below.

NEW PROGRAMME JULY TO DECEMBER 2011

JULY

11th             Read your own work          (venue tba)

25th            Oulippo workshop with Robert Shooter (Methodist hall, High Street)

AUGUST

8th               Read your own work  (venue tba)

22nd             Guest Carole Baldock, small press publisher   (Methodist hall, High Street)

SEPTEMBER

12th          Read your own work (venue tba)

26th          Write on the night: character swap (Carol)     (Methodist Hall, High St)

OCTOBER

10th             Read your own work  (venue tba)

24th             ‘When the Clocks Change’ Theme night:1000 words max  (Methodist hall, High Street)

NOVEMBER

14th            Read your own work.  (venue tba)

28th            Introducing your character workshop with Joe Welsh         (Methodist Hall, high St)

DECEMBER
12th            Christmas party    (Methodist hall, High St)

RECENT EVENTS

PULP IDOL 2010

Tuesday 11th May at the Engine Rooms, Skelmersdale Writers hosted a heat of this year’s Pulp Idol contest. Five aspiring novelists read from their first chapters to Judges Jim Friel and myself. Only one writer could go through to the final. It was a hard choice but we finally selected Mathew Eland. Mathew will compete in the final to be held  on 16th May at the Contemporary Urban Centre in Liverpool. All the finalists will receive a book containing their first chapters which can be shown to agents. The overall winner wins a residential course at Ty Newydd creative writing centre.

Tales From A New Town is the latest anthology from  Skelmersdale Writers’ Group and was produced as a result of an event of the same name held at the Engine Rooms in May 2009 as part of Merseyside’s Writing on the Wall Festival. A report of this event can be seen further down this page.

The anthology contains contributions from people who live or have lived in Skelmersdale, recounting their experiences and thoughts in poetry, fiction and memoirs and although many of the pieces are from members of Skelmersdale Writers, others are from people who have never written anything before and who came to the event in response to our call for contributors in the local press.

Copies are available at group meetings, price £3.99 or email me for postal details.

BUY NOW – £3.OO + £1.OO P+P. Email for posting details writeme@carolfenlon.com

******* ONLY SIX COPIES LEFT******** NOW” S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO BUY THIS ORIGINAL COLLECTION ********* DEFINITELY A COLLECTABLE OF THE FUTURE.. (January 2010)

RECENT EVENTS

LAUNCH OF TALES FROM A NEW TOWN ANTHOLOGY AT SKELMERSDALE  LIBRARY

The group is grateful to Skelmersdale Library for hosting a reading of our new  anthology on Thursday 15th April. Members of the group and members of the public attended the reading which was enjoyed by all. Joe Welsh acted as master of ceremonies and Lyn Fenton came along to  talk about the work of Marie Curie Cancer Care and to thank the group for dedicating the anthology to the organisation (each copy sold makes a 25p contribution to Marie Curie.

Dr Ailsa Cox from Edge Hill University’s Creative Writing Department gave a reading and workshop on the short story  on Tuesday 16th March at 7.45pm.  Dr Cox is an expert on the short story form and has done much to raise its profile in the UK, including the development of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize for a published collection which is now a well recognised national competition. Ailsa Cox is the author of the Routledge Writer’s Guide, Writing Short Stories. Her short fiction has been published in many literary magazines and her short story collectionThe Real Louise and Other Storieshas recently been published by Headland. After reading a selection of excerpts from her short stories and using these to illustrate her writing process, a lively question and answer session was followed by a short workshop on creating narrative voices, so that each of us took away a new character which could be developed with further writing. Yet another very enjoyable event in our series of speaker evenings.

JENN ASHWORTH ON APPROACHING AGENTS  2nd February 2010

Preston based writer Jenn Ashworth shared her knowledge of synopsis writing and how to approach an agent. This was a skilfully presented workshop. Jenn included a wealth of information for writers aspiring to the publication of a full length book or collection and provided an useful handout for future reference.. Feedback from the group was excellent and we look forward to seeing Jenn read her own work at Edge Hill’s Rose Theatre on Wednesday 3rd March 7.30pm for more information about the group and/or events, email writeme@carolfenlon.com